THE RESILIENCE IMPERATIVE - The Science Behind Organizational Resilience - meQuilibrium
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THE RESILIENCE IMPERATIVE The Science Behind Organizational Resilience
OVERVIEW
TO SUCCEED IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF RAPID
CHANGE AND DISRUPTION, ORGANIZATIONS AND
THEIR EMPLOYEES NEED TO ACHIEVE A NEW LEVEL
OF RESILIENCE. IT’S NO LONGER SIMPLY HOW
WELL A PERSON CAN PERFORM IN A STRUCTURED,
FAMILIAR SITUATION, BUT HOW PEOPLE REACT AND
RESILIENCE
ADAPT TO NEW CHALLENGES AND CIRCUMSTANCES.
THESE ARE THE CRITICAL SKILLS OF THE
WORKFORCE OF TODAY AND TOMORROW.
Just as climate change has made extreme weather events more frequent
and more intense, globalization and the digital economy have made
major business shifts more frequent and more intense. The global
COVID-19 pandemic is the most obvious example, but the list is long:
rapid changes in international politics and trade, enormous increases
in the pace of innovation, vast and rapid technology shifts across nearly
all business sectors, major shifts in consumer behavior—rare is the
organization that operates the way it did just months ago. As a result,
employee resilience and organizational agility have replaced efficiency
as the best predictors of business success over time.
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 2
Executives believe less than half of their workforce is adaptable to this new world of work, according
to a major survey, Mercer's 2020 Global Talent Study. As the study's authors state, "THE QUESTION
IS NOT WHO CAN ADAPT BUT HOW BEST TO DEVELOP AN ADAPTABLE WORKFORCE.” Businesses are
now reorganizing around the changed needs and behaviors of their customers, for example the mass
retailers who now offer curbside pickup or the exponential growth of videoconferencing. This requires
companies to rewire ways of working and—even more directly—ways of thinking, re-imagining their
organizations and adapting talent accordingly.
The level of rapid and disruptive change is revealing the cracks in operational and workforce systems ANDREW SHATTÉ, PH.D.
Chief Knowledge Officer and
built for efficiency. Amid worries about the economy, job security, their health and the health of their Co-founder
loved ones, employees’ capacity to take on change in the workplace has plunged significantly, HR
advisory firm Gartner said. “HR leaders now realize that efficient organizations are actually fragile.
Most HR leaders expect an impact in next 12 months as organizations shift from designing for efficiency
to designing for flexibility.”
That’s where building resilience comes in. Beginning in the 1980s, a meQuilibrium co-founder,
Andrew Shatté, Ph.D., was among the first in the field of psychology to identify the core capabilities—
problem solving, emotional control, optimism, and self-efficacy—of resilience. Shatté and his
colleagues adapted the techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy for the real world of employee
training. Resilience, their work demonstrated, can be learned, reinforced, and spread through an
organization. Co-founder and CEO Jan Bruce built meQuilibrium to help organizations bring Shatté’s
work to their entire workforces.
JAN BRUCE
CEO and Co-founder
Resilience helps individuals and organizations bounce back from setbacks, even catastrophic events.
Just as importantly, the same capabilities serve a preventive role, putting people in position to adapt
to daily events and challenges without the levels of stress, uncertainty, and resistance they would
otherwise have experienced.
The evidence is prevalent in meQuilibrium’s database of user assessments. Because the digital system
can be offered company wide at any scale— it includes companies comprising millions of employees—
meQuilibrium has assessed the resilience and tracked the progress of more than 500,000 individuals
around the world, amassing 1.5 billion data points in the process.
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 3
RESILIENT PEOPLE ARE:
60%
OVER 24 MONTHS BEGINNING IN DECEMBER
2018, COMPANIES WITH HIGH RESILIENCE
OUTPERFORMED THE DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL
AVERAGE BY 116%.
less likely to
Resilience can be learned—and people with high levels of resilience are
60% less likely to suffer burnout and 31% more engaged, can have a 26%
experience burnout
reduction in depression risk, and half the stress-related productivity
31%
loss as compared to those with low resilience. In short, people who gain
resilience are happier, healthier, more engaged, and more effective.
This paper explores the research that meQuilibrium’s team has done to
understand the issues of resilience and the impact that a targeted resilience
training and support system can have on individuals and businesses.
more engaged
Real-world data demonstrates that, from bottom to top, resilience
training and ongoing guidance can improve workforce engagement,
50%
mindset, and effectiveness. In this time of evolution, adaptation, and
acute—even emergency—events, such as the next pandemic or hack, the
companies that build the muscle to continuously and rapidly adapt their
models and workforces to changes will be better able to compete.
half the stress-related
productivity loss
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 4Key COMPANIES WITH RESILIENT WORKFORCES
FINDINGS OUTPERFORM THE MARKET
EMPLOYEE RESILIENCE PREDICTS
ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY AND WORKFORCE
RISKS
RESILIENCE TRAINING CROSSES COMMON
ORGANIZATIONAL DIVIDES
IN STRESSFUL TIMES AND HIGH-STRESS
ENVIRONMENTS, RESILIENCE IS ESPECIALLY
VALUABLE
RESILIENT WORKFORCES REDUCE COSTS AND
RAISE PROFITS
RESILIENCE MAKES WORKPLACES WORK
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 5Understanding RESILIENCE "Dealing with ambiguity has perhaps become the most important power skill during a time when all aspects of life have been upended." – Josh Bersin, Business Resilience: The Global COVID Pandemic Response Study meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 6
RESILIENCE IS THE HUMAN ABILITY TO REMAIN EFFECTIVE
DURING TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY AND TO BOUNCE BACK
FROM SETBACKS.
1 EMOTION REGULATION
The ability to control feelings like anger, fear,
or grief in trying situations.
Because it involves situational awareness, rethinking, perspective, and—at times—
reinvention, resilience is closely tied to positive qualities including creativity, empathy,
optimism, and simple good cheer. 2 IMPULSE CONTROL
The physical counterpart of emotion control.
The ability to control one’s behavior.
3
Scientific study of resilience is growing exponentially. Before the year 2000, there were only
CAUSAL ANALYSIS
about 30 peer-reviewed resilience studies published in journals each year. By 2016, there
The ability to think through issues in new ways
were more than 900 per year. The upheavals of 2020 made the trend a tipping point. The
so that current or cultural mindset does not
organizational, economic, and personal impact of COVID-19 saw an explosion of attention
limit one’s ability to address them.
to resilience from organization leaders, consulting firms, academics, and business media.
4
Much of the interest has come as psychologists determined that cognitive training could SELF-EFFICACY
improve personal resilience. Once seen as an innate characteristic, meQuilibrium's work The belief in your own abilities and your impact
demonstrates that resilience can be seen as a set of learnable competencies that mitigate on others.
5
the experience of stress, accelerate response to challenges, and allow people to more readily
adapt to change. MEASURED OPTIMISM
The ability to be realistic while seeing how a
Led by the work of meQuilibrium co-founder Andrew Shatté, employee resilience is a
situation might improve.
significant subset of resilience research and intervention. meQuilibrium’s insight was that
6
mental health is considered an issue for a small (10%) of the employee population, and that,
unfortunately, society stigmatizes those diagnosed with mental health problems or illness. EMPATHY
But just as everyone has physical health, every person has mental health, and can benefit The ability to grasp someone else’s perspective
from improving it. and approach.
7
Beginning in the 1990s, Shatté and others established that resilient employees demonstrate
skills in seven key areas that help them remain psychologically robust when faced with REACHING OUT
challenges or adversity: EMOTION REGULATION, IMPULSE CONTROL, CAUSAL ANALYSIS, The ability to make connections so you can lean
SELF-EFFICACY, MEASURED OPTIMISM, EMPATHY and REACHING OUT. on others or provide support.
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 7VALIDATING
meQuilibrium’s Data
To document the correlation between meQuilibrium’s user data analysis and The meQuilibrium assessment correlates highly
well-established psychology metrics, meQuilibrium commissioned a series
with other measures of resilience, and strongly
of independent studies of more than 2,000 respondents from national panels.
Each panel completed a survey which included items from the meQuilibrium predicts outcomes such as stress, depression,
survey and from common psychometric measures of wellbeing, including: anxiety, and presenteeism.
The Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ)
Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ)
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item Depression Scale (PHQ-9)
Work Productivity and Activity Index (WPAI) Presenteeism Measure
© 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 8
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 8BUILDING RESILIENCE The introduction of a digital system for resilience improvement changed
companies’ potential for participation from limited, mostly top-down
IN AN ORGANIZATION individual training for managers to a whole-company approach that offered
culture-defining potential.
RECOGNIZING THE VALUE OF RESILIENCE IN To personalize its user interaction and improve results, the meQuilibrium
system gathers a uniquely broad spectrum of data points—encompassing
AN ORGANIZATION, MEQUILIBRIUM CREATED A
focus, engagement, mental state, physical wellbeing, personal situation, and
RESILIENCE-BUILDING AND SUPPORT SYSTEM THAT connection—on each user. Its onboarding questions categorize users into
COMMONLY REACHES WELL MORE THAN HALF OF AN essential personality tendencies which predict each user’s needs how each
ORGANIZATION’S POPULATION. IN DEPLOYMENT, THE individual is likely to react to training. It pinpoints each person’s reaction to
the most common stress factors. And it provides a baseline score—the meQ
SYSTEM HAS COLLECTED BILLIONS OF DATA POINTS
Score—that individuals can use to assess their current resilience and track
ON MORE THAN 500,000 USERS FROM A NUMBER OF improvement over time.
THE WORLD’S LEADING COMPANIES, PROVIDING DEEP
For individuals, this multidimensional assessment leads to a highly personal
PERSONAL, ORGANIZATIONAL, AND GLOBAL INSIGHTS.
engagement with meQuilibrium’s tools, content and training. The “assessment
to assignment” algorithm allows the user’s digital training to focus on each
person’s greatest need and highest potential.
AT THE TEAM AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL, THE MEQUILIBRIUM DIGITAL
SYSTEM OFFERS REAL-TIME INSIGHTS INTO WORKFORCE EFFICACY,
WELLBEING, AND MINDSET—INFORMATION THAT IS SIMPLY UNAVAILABLE
THROUGH COMMON HR SOURCES AND TOUCH POINTS.
And at the global and academic level, the data provides critical information
on wellbeing trends, financial impacts, industry variations, and the universal
human need for resilience in a vast and varied society. The findings answer
critical questions about resilience training and its impact.
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 9WORKPLACES ARE
IDEAL FOR RESILIENCE
IMPROVEMENT
THE WORK ENVIRONMENT, RESEARCH DEMONSTRATES, The trove of research demonstrates that resilience can be learned and
improved—by anyone. The training does not need to rise to the level of
PROVIDES FERTILE GROUND FOR RESILIENCE TRAINING.
cognitive behavioral therapy, which calls for intensive individual work with
WORK DECISIONS AND ACTIONS OFFER TRAINEES A a professional therapist, often over long periods of time. Instead, individuals
PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCE THAT MORE PERSONAL can learn to understand their own patterns of thinking and response, which
(FAMILY, FRIENDS) SITUATIONS DO NOT, MAKING IT allows them to situationally end-run their more deeply held psychological
patterns and history.
EASIER TO APPLY RESILIENCE SKILLS THAT LOWER THE
EMOTIONAL TEMPERATURE OF THE MOMENT, IMPROVE
DECISION-MAKING AND REDUCE STRESS.
3.1x
more resilience improvement
MEMBERS WHO COMPLETED A DOZEN OR MORE SKILLS HAD 211% MORE
RESILIENCE IMPROVEMENT, OR 3.1x THE RESILIENCE IMPROVEMENT OF
MEMBERS WHO COMPLETED FEW TO NO SKILLS.
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 10Businesses with Resilient Employees
OUTPERFORM THE MARKET
AMONG MEQUILIBRIUM’S LARGEST PUBLICLY-TRADED CUSTOMERS, THOSE COMPANIES WITH THE HIGHEST RESILIENCE
SCORES AT BASELINE OUTPERFORMED THE DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL INDEX (DJIA) BY 116% OVER THE LAST 24 MONTHS.
24m STOCK PRICE CHANGE
Change in Stock Price: December 2018 —
December 2020 by aggregate resilience
scores at Baseline.
67%
31%
DJIA BENCHMARK TOP QUARTILE RESILIENCE
BASELINE
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 11EVEN SMALL AMOUNTS OF TRAINING HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT EVIDENCE SHOWS A STRONG “DOSING EFFECT”— EACH TRAINING SESSION PROVIDES MEASURABLE IMPROVEMENT — FOR TIME SPENT IN PERSONALIZED, TARGETED RESILIENCE TRAINING. USERS WHO STARTED WITH LOW RESILIENCE SAW EXCEPTIONAL LEVELS OF IMPROVEMENT. meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 12
In work published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, meQuilibrium’s research team showed resilience skill-building’s “dosing effect”. For the
600 randomly selected participants, correlation was nearly linear: time spent training led to markedly improved resilience levels, perceived stress levels, and reduced
somatic (physical) symptoms of stress.
THE AVERAGE MEMBER SAW A 5% IMPROVEMENT IN RESILIENCE WITH SIX HOURS OF TRAINING. EACH ADDITIONAL
HOUR OF RESILIENCE TRAINING LED TO AN INCREASE OF 1.3% IN RESILIENCE.
Having a lower level of resilience at the time of enrollment tended to produce greater improvements in resilience for the same time invested in training. A member who
began the program with low levels of resilience could expect to see a 10% improvement with just 4 hours of training.
The study also found a strong dosing effect for stress reduction. Depending on time invested in the program, decreases in perceived stress ranged from 0% to 13%, and
decreases in somatic symptoms ranged from 0% to 9%. After 5 hours of training, those with lower baseline resilience reported a 15% and 11.1% decrease in stress and
somatic manifestations, respectively.
20
15 14%
15%
16%
2.8x
USERS WITH THE HIGHEST NEED
13%
12% HAVE A HIGHER RETURN ON TIME
11% SPENT ON RESILIENCE
10%
9% 9%
10x
10
8% 8%
7%
6% 6%
5%
5 4% USERS WHO MADE SIGNIFICANT
3% INVESTMENTS IN RESILIENCE
2%
1% TRAINING HAD ON AVERAGE 10x
0% THE IMPROVEMENT OF USERS
WHO MADE MINIMAL INVESTMENTS
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 13RESILIENCE SKILLS By just about any measure of either overall wellbeing or employment
effectiveness and satisfaction, resilience leads to success.
IMPROVE LIVES ACROSS Resilient people are much less likely to burn out, quit, or spiral into more
MANY MEASURES serious issues such as depression or unmanaged anger. They suffer fewer of
the physical (somatic) manifestations of stress, such as insomnia. And they are
more engaged, contributing more to an organization’s efforts.
THE CORRELATIONS ARE TOO STRONG TO IGNORE:
Low resilience correlates with poor overall health. In fact, employees with low
PEOPLE WITH HIGH RESILIENCE SKILLS ARE ON THE resilience are more than twice as likely to be overweight and twice as likely
WHOLE ARE MORE ENGAGED, MORE EFFECTIVE, to report a hospital stay in the past year. In addition, 50 percent of those with
HAPPIER AND HEALTHIER. low resilience have indications of depression, compared to only one percent of
those with high resilience.
5x
AS MANY HIGH RESILIENCE
30%
MORE MENTALLY AGILE
3x
BURNOUT SCORES ARE MORE
USERS REPORT BEING IN VERY THAN LESS RESILIENT THAN 3x LARGER AMONG
GOOD OR EXCELLENT HEALTH EMPLOYEES THOSE WITH LOW RESILIENCE
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 14RESILIENCE DATA PROVIDES PREDICTIVE INSIGHTS
ACROSS TIME, TEAMS, REGIONS, AND INDUSTRIES, RESILIENCE ENGAGEMENT BRINGS DEEP LEARNING
TO ORGANIZATIONS.
Significant population and trend analysis requires robust data. Analysis of meQuilibrium’s dataset, along with real-world evidence, shows that organizations
offering resilience assessments and training to their entire workforces are rewarded with statistically valid insights into population trends for mindset, resilience,
and wellbeing. The data presented here is an excerpt of actual findings for a large global company that had recently begun to offer resilience services during the
early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Human Resource management at the company immediately reacted to this risk analysis data, looking to improve many of
the numbers over time.
EMPLOYEE CATEGORIES AT
HIGH RISK FOR ANXIETY 30
Percentage of Users at Very High Risk
Compared to meQ Norm
20
EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST,
10
AMERICA
AMERICA
NORTH
AFRICA
OTHER
18 - 29
30 - 39
40 - 49
LATIN
50-59
ASIA
RESILIENCE
YES
60+
0 NO
AGE GROUP MANAGER REGION
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 15EMPLOYEE CATEGORIES 15
AT HIGH RISK FOR
BURNOUT 12
Percentage of Users at Very High Risk
EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST,
Compared to meQ Norm
9
6
AMERICA
AMERICA
NORTH
AFRICA
OTHER
18 - 29
30 - 39
40 - 49
LATIN
50-59
ASIA
YES
60+
NO
3
AGE GROUP MANAGER REGION
EMPLOYEE CATEGORIES
15
AT HIGH RISK FOR
LOW PRODUCTIVITY
12
Percentage of Users at Very High Risk
Compared to meQ Norm
EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST,
9
6
AMERICA
AMERICA
NORTH
AFRICA
OTHER
18 - 29
30 - 39
40 - 49
LATIN
50-59
ASIA
YES
60+
3 NO
AGE GROUP MANAGER REGION
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 16EMPLOYEE CATEGORIES 20
AT HIGH RISK FOR LOW
RESILIENCE
Percentage of Users at Very High Risk
15
EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST,
Compared to meQ Norm
10
AMERICA
AMERICA
NORTH
AFRICA
OTHER
18 - 29
30 - 39
40 - 49
LATIN
50-59
ASIA
YES
60+
NO
5
AGE GROUP MANAGER REGION
PREDICTIVE INSIGHTS THINKING
can also be derived from tracking
22% EXTERNALIZING
TRAPS
cognitive patterns such as EMPATHY,
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, and Percentage of users with
30% MAGNIFIYING & MINIMIZING
PROBLEM-SOLVING common thinking traps
33% EMOTIONAL REASONING
34% OVERGENERALIZING
37% PERSONALIZING
40% MIND READING
50% WORST CASE THINKING
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 17For many organizations,
WORKFORCE RESILIENCE IS
THE OVERLOOKED ELEMENT.
PREDICTS WORKS ACROSS CRITICAL IN REDUCES COST MAKES
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMON STRESSFUL AND RAISES WORKPLACES
AGILITY DIVIDES TIMES PROFITS WORK
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 18EMPLOYEE RESILIENCE AGILITY ATTRIBUTES
IS THE BASIS OF
ORGANIZATIONAL ADAPTIVITY CREATIVITY
AGILITY +28%
RESILIENCE IS A KEY DRIVER
+30%
HIGH RESILIENCE SCORES
ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY CALLS FOR LEADERSHIP, OF THE ABILITY TO ADAPT CORRESPOND TO 30% HIGHER
TO CHANGE. DEMONSTRATIONS OF NEW
VISION, TECHNICAL FACILITY, AND OPERATIONAL
THINKING AND CREATIVITY.
FLEXIBILITY. BUT BUSINESSES ARE ONLY AS AGILE Employees who had the
AS THEIR WORKFORCES ALLOW. A WORKFORCE highest resilience as • willingness to go beyond
THAT IS RESISTANT OR OVERWHELMED BY CHANGE measured by meQ Score were the status quo
28% more able to adapt to
WILL FALTER AT REINVENTION. • a desire to be innovative
changing circumstances, and
were more likely to display • a pattern of trying
The workforce qualities that manifest as agility at the organizational
attributes such as creativity, numerous methods to
level are, at the individual level, resilience. meQuilibrium’s research
acquiring new skills, adapting find new solutions
shows that resilience is the basis of creativity, innovation, and positive
to others and responding
change management.
quickly to new challenges.
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 19AGILITY ATTRIBUTES
INTERPERSONAL
QUICK THINKING SKILL BUILDING ADAPTABILITY
+30%
HIGH RESILIENCE SCORES
+32%
RE-SKILLING AND UPSKILLING
+20%
INTERPERSONAL ADAPTABILITY
CORRELATE TO A 30% HIGHER TALENT IS CRITICAL FOR A INCLUDES THE ABILITY TO WORK
ABILITY TO RESPOND QUICKLY RESILIENT AND ADAPTIVE WELL WITH DIFFERENT TYPES
TO UNFORESEEN CHALLENGES. ORGANIZATION. OF PEOPLE—A CRITICAL ABILITY
Those with low resilience IN TIMES OF CHANGE AND AN
• reorganizing work to adapt are 32% less likely to engage ERA WHEN COMPANIES ARE
to new circumstances in training and skill- MAKING DELIBERATE EFFORTS
improvement to enhance their AT DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION.
• quickly resolving problems
performance compared to The highest levels of resilience
• rapidly analyzing novel those with highest resilience. are associated with 20% higher
situations interpersonal adaptability.
• more likely to volunteer
for new and different • an openness to other
assignments viewpoints
• to improve their skills • placing a high value
on relationships and
• proactively find training
collaboration
opportunities
• willingness to adjust one’s
• track innovation one’s
communication style to fit
tasks
different circumstances.
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 20UNANTICIPATED
Without Workforce Resilience CONSEQUENCES:
HIGHLY AGILE TEAMS
CAN SUFFER
Because agility requires constant adaptation, it calls for psychological skills
that support positive reactions to change. meQuilibrium’s data shows that high
organizational agility demands in a low-resilience workforce is associated with
+27%
depression risk increase
much higher levels of depression and anxiety risk.
+54%
Improving both resilience and agility show strong benefits across three outcomes:
depression, anxiety, and absenteeism. HOWEVER, BUILDING AGILITY ALONE IN LOW-
RESILIENCE EMPLOYEES MAY PRODUCE UNANTICIPATED CONSEQUENCES.
anxiety risk increase
+5.7
DAYS PER YEAR
absenteeism increase
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 21RESILIENCE TRAINING Works Across Common Organizational Divides The idea of resilience is universal. Religions, literature, and drama from every culture and every moment in history reflect the importance of personal and group resilience in the human experience. The fact that virtually everyone appreciates and desires resilience allows corporate resilience initiatives to cross all the matrices that make up a diverse organization. Some of meQuilibrium’s first deployments were in large call centers, where the staff had limited autonomy and had to remain positive and professional at all times. As meQuilibrium’s deployments grew, they encompassed knowledge workers, health care professionals, government workers, and senior executives, often in large (Fortune 500) companies that offer the digital system to every employee. As usage grew and meQuilibrium’s science team gathered data, evidence showed that resilience is an asset for every job. As companies increasingly recognize the value of diversity and the importance of cultural awareness, resilience training offers common ground and unifies successes. meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 22
EVERYONE BENEFITS FROM RESILIENCE
WE ALL NEED RESILIENCE: AT EVERY LEVEL OF INCOME AND EDUCATION, MORE THAN 40 PERCENT OF PEOPLE STUDIED
HAVE LOW MEQUILIBRIUM RESILIENCE SCORES.
To drill down into the need for resilience training bottom to top, meQuilibrium’s research team contrasted resilience levels across a range of income and education
levels, controlling for the effects of age and gender.
HIGHLY PAID, HIGHLY EDUCATED EMPLOYEES ARE AT RISK FOR THE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF LOW RESILIENCE: feeling burned out, having sleep
issues, experiencing more absences, and having impaired productivity.
INCOME
Low resilience was common
among employees regardless
41% OF THOSE WHO EARNED $150,000 OR
MORE A YEAR HAVE LOW RESILIENCE 59%
54% 46%
of compensation.
OF THOSE WHO EARNED BETWEEN $75,000
AND $100,000 HAVE LOW RESILIENCE
THE HIGHLY EDUCATED, WELL-PAID, BUT LOW RESILIENT POPULATION HAD SEVERELY HEIGHTENED RISKS FOR DEPRESSION (3x) and twice the rate of
absence and turnover intent than those who scored high in resilience.
40% 60%
EDUCATION OF THOSE WITH A MASTER'S
ER
OV
DEGREE OR HIGHER SCORED BELOW
A similar pattern of findings
AVERAGE FOR RESILIENCE
was seen for resilience by level
47% 53%
of educational attainment.
OF THOSE WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE
SCORED BELOW AVERAGE FOR RESILIENCE
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 23RESILIENCE SKILLS ADDRESS EVERYDAY
CHALLENGES IN EVERYDAY LANGUAGE
The broad appeal of resilience is reflected in the kinds of psychological skills that highly resilient people
demonstrate. So is the improvement that diverse workforces gain from resilience training. In a before and after
study, meQuilibrium users reported marked gains in everyday skills.
AVERAGE
SKILL MANIFESTATION IMPROVEMENT
COOL YOUR ANGER When things go wrong, I get angry.
20%
CURB YOUR FRUSTRATION
When I am stuck in a problem, I get easily
frustrated. 16%
EMBODY YOUR CORE
VALUES
I feel "blah" about my life.
12%
TRAIN YOURSELF TO SEE
THE POSITIVE
I can easily dispel negative thoughts that
pop into my mind. 38%
CLEAR YOUR HEAD
I easily get bogged down in thoughts that
turn over and over in my mind. 30%
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 24RESILIENCE IS INVALUABLE IN STRESSFUL TIMES
The evidence is overwhelming that resilience is valuable across a variety of mental health, physical health and general wellbeing outcomes. But resilience has even
more value when the going gets tough. Whether a company is facing a crisis or a turning point, or is by its nature a high-stress environment, resilience skills are
reflected in employee effectiveness, happiness, and engagement.
PURPOSE BURNOUT TURNOVER INTENT
IN HIGH CHANGE SCENARIOS, GIVING EMPLOYEES FACED WITH THE STRESS RESILIENT AND AGILE EMPLOYEES
INDIVIDUALS A SENSE OF CONNECTION THAT COMES WITH AN ENVIRONMENT ARE ALMOST 50% LESS LIKELY TO
TO AND MEANING IN THEIR WORK IS WHERE CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT QUIT.
NOT ONLY GOOD FOR THE EMPLOYEE, ARE AT HIGH RISK FOR BURNOUT, which
BUT ALSO KEY TO ENSURING A can show up as physical or emotional The positive impact of resilience and
HIGH-FUNCTIONING, COMPETITIVE exhaustion, cynicism, detachment, agility extends beyond burnout to
ORGANIZATION. or feelings of being ineffective. turnover intent. Employees who are
both highly resilient and have higher
Employees who have a personal Resilience and agility are strongly agility are about half as likely as those
connection to their work and see how protective against work burnout. with low resilience and agility to
their work and life purposes intersect plan to leave their job in the next
are more committed and motivated six months.
on the job.
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 25EVEN IN CHALLENGING VOLUME 59 - ISSUE 2 - P 135
ENVIRONMENTS, The Positive Effect of Resilience on Stress and Business
Outcomes in Difficult Work Environments
RESILIENT WORKERS
CONTINUE TO THRIVE
Outcomes comparing high and low resilience under high and low strain work environments.
RESEARCH SHOWS A POWERFUL PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF RESILIENCE
FOR ALL EMPLOYEES, BUT A PARTICULARLY STRONG EFFECT FOR THOSE
EMPLOYEES WHO WORK IN SITUATIONS WHERE THEY ARE REQUIRED TO
DELIVER QUICKLY, HAVE LITTLE AUTONOMY AND RECEIVE RELATIVELY
LITTLE SUPPORT.
While meQuilibrium’s current client population reflects a huge range of
occupations and work situations—front-line workers, knowledge workers,
management, professionals, and executives.
In a peer-reviewed article published in the Journal of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine, meQuilibrium studied resilience in high-stress
workplaces. The work environments were assessed using elements from
the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, specifically job demands,
autonomy, and social support at work.
• Across every outcome and regardless of work environment, highly
resilient employees fare better than less resilient employees.
• Resilience often has its highest payoff in high strain environments. For
depression, absenteeism and productivity impairment, resilience is
more protective in high strain relative to low strain environments.
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 26At Times of Acute Crisis,
RESILIENCE IS
PARAMOUNT
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 27THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC finding: High resilience inoculated workers JOB STRESS AMONG WOMEN increased by nearly
against personal stress. 20%, while job stress among men increased
PRESENTED A REAL-WORLD
just 1.6%. In addition to job stress, the rate of
LABORATORY FOR RESILIENCE Across all industry segments perception of decreased motivation was SUBSTANTIALLY HIGHER
RESEARCH IN MYRIAD WAYS, FROM employer support had a mitigating impact on AMONG WOMEN (31%) THAN AMONG MEN (21%).
MEQUILIBRIUM’S CONCERN FOR ITS stress and it increased motivation. In addition,
resilience training worked for those users who
OWN WORKFORCE TO INDUSTRY- EMPLOYEES IN INDUSTRIES SUCH AS
were most engaged with the meQuilibrium
SCALE ANALYSIS OF CRISIS solution had more positive outcomes.
COMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY SERVICES AND
FINANCE/INSURANCE showed negative impacts
REACTION AND MANAGEMENT.
from the transition to working from home and
TECH INDUSTRY EMPLOYEES had the most
all the changes entailed. In contrast, employees
The ultimate finding: It’s critical broadly negative changes of the industries
working in Health Products & Devices (mostly
broken out in the study (others included finance,
for employers to understand the pharmaceutical companies) and Manufacturing
communications, manufacturing, health
state of the workforce and protect products and health services), with DOUBLE-DIGIT
showed some of the lowest NEGATIVE OUTCOMES
related to emotional wellbeing in the early months
against falling behind. INCREASES in JOB STRESS (11%), DISORDERED
of the pandemic.
SLEEP (14%), BURNOUT (23%), and an almost 40%
Managers who saw vulnerable workforces and DROP IN MOTIVATION.
responded with support—from resilience training
to facilitating working at home to childcare YOUNGER WORKERS generally had stronger
and more—were much better able to keep their reactions than older ones. Workers under 40
workforces engaged and encouraged. experienced a 23% increase in disordered sleep,
versus an increase in sleep issues of only 1%
meQuilibrium’s study of 7,000 workers compared in older workers. MOTIVATION HAD A SERIOUS
changes in job stress, burnout, motivation and DECLINE, with workers under 40 experiencing a
sleep between December 2019 and June 2020. decline of 45%, while workers over 40 suffered a
The large sample was drawn from a range of 14% decline in motivation. There was also a 19%
organizations and allowed for data analysis by INCREASE IN THE RISK OF BURNOUT among the
industry and demographic cohorts. younger group, while the older group experienced
a 3% decreased risk of burnout between December
The data showed some surprises: particularly 2019 and June 2020.
the vulnerability of younger workers. The major
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 28OVERALL, MEQUILIBRIUM USERS REPORTED MENTAL CHALLENGES IN THE FIRST 6 MONTHS OF 2020.
HOWEVER, EMPLOYER SUPPORT MADE A CONSIDERABLE DIFFERENCE. THOSE MOST ENGAGED WITH RESILIENCE TRAINING FARED CONSIDERABLY
BETTER THAN WORKERS WHO WERE LESS ENGAGED.
STRONGLY SUPPORTED LESS WELL SUPPORTED
MOST ENGAGED LEAST ENGAGED
35
33%
30 29% 35
32%
25
30
27%
25
20 18% 21%
20
15
15
15%
10
9%
6% 10
5 3%
1%
5
1% -4% -1%
0 0
WORK STRESS BURNOUT DISORDERED SLEEP
-5
STRESS BURNOUT MOTIVATION SLEEP
Because all of the subjects were meQuilbrium users, the results are specific to the meQuilibrium product.
Those MOST ENGAGED with resilience
training FARED CONSIDERABLY BETTER 33% 9% -29% -27%
than workers who were less engaged.
INCREASED INCREASED DECREASED DECREASED
FEELINGS OF FEELINGS OF FEELINGS OF FEELINGS OF
STRESS BURNOUT MOTIVATION POSITIVITY
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 29ROI: RESILIENT WORKFORCES REDUCE COSTS AND RAISE PROFITS meQuilibrium research shows that when people can improve their coping skills and become more resilient, they become more engaged, more productive, are less likely to miss work or quit their jobs. At scale, that can be worth millions. An increase in resilience helps stress symptoms and illness rates, absences, disability rates and duration, turnover, work engagement, and productivity. The meQuilibrium Score measures the change in those factors—and supports a financial analysis. Data on resilience combined with company data on pay scales, absence and turnover rates demonstrates the payoff. COMMONLY-ACHIEVED RESILIENCE IMPROVEMENTS STAND TO RAISE PERFORMANCE BY $1908 PER MEMBER OR MORE THAN $2.4M PER 10K EMPLOYEES . The model assumes an average salary of $50,000, 25% enrollment of eligible users, 50% engagement, and a 30% resilience improvement, all typical of a meQuilibrium implementation. meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 30
WORKFORCE ROI IS DIRECTLY IMPROVED BY RESILIENCE
TRAINING OUTCOMES
Any employee is at risk for underperformance, whether through absence, "presenteeism", or burnout. Highly resilient employees are both more productive and
more effective.
PERFORMANCE
80
ABSENCE
70
60
61% WPAI PRESENTEEISM
BURNOUT
50
40
25%
30
30% 31%
20
15%
10 8%
0
LOWEST RESILIENCE QUARTILE HIGHEST RESILIENCE QUARTILE
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 31MENTAL HEALTH
Percentage of population with MODERATE OR HIGHER DEPRESSION (PHQ-9) and MODERATE OR HIGHER Perceived Stress Scale Scores by
ANXIETY (GAD-7) per quartile RESILIENCE and POSITIVITY Level
MODERATE OR HIGHER
ANXIETY (GAD-7)
MODERATE OR HIGHER
DEPRESSION PHQ-9
20.4%
LOW RESILIENCE
46.9%
9.5%
50
40
36.3% HIGH RESILIENCE
30
20
9.4%
HIGH RESILIENCE &
10 HIGH MINDFULNESS
0
0.0% 0.1%
LOWEST RESILIENCE QUARTILE HIGHEST RESILIENCE QUARTILE
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 32PHYSICAL HEALTH
80
72% HEALTH
STATUS
OVERALL meQ SCORE 70
AND HEALTH STATUS 60
50 48%
40
31%
30
17%
20
10
0
QUARTILE 1 QUARTILE 2 QUARTILE 3 QUARTILE 4
LOW RESILIENCE HIGH RESILIENCE
PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS 60%
POOR SLEEP
REPORTING SYMPTOMS
50%
TENSION
40% PALPITATIONS
30% HEADACHE
20% STOMACH DISTRESS
10%
0.0
35 40 44 49 53 58 62 67 71 76 80
meQ SCORE
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 33RESILIENCE MAKES WORKPLACES WORK
More than 20 years of research by Gallup shows that employee engagement is strongly connected to outcomes essential to a business’s financial success, including
profitability, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Resilient employees have almost 2x the sense of connection to meaning and purpose at work which is key to
ensuring a high functioning competitive organizations.
MEANING AND PURPOSE AT WORK AGILITY
6 5
5
6.0 4 4.8
4
3
3
3.5
2
2
2.3
1
1
0 0
HIGH RESILIENCE LOW RESILIENCE HIGH RESILIENCE AND LOW RESILIENCE AND
AND AGILITY AND AGILITY ADAPTIVE CAPABILITY ADAPTIVE CAPABILITY
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 34RESILIENCE MAKES WORK
A HAPPIER, HEALTHIER
EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
Improving resilience has numerous positive benefits for employee experience.
In addition to meQuilibrium’s own research, management research conducted
by multiple independent researchers confirms that:
• Resilience is associated with positive perceptions about work such as
satisfaction, commitment, and good citizenship
• Resilience is associated with fewer negative perceptions about work such as
disengagement and cynicism as well as disruptive behaviors
• Employees with high levels of resilience report a lower intent to quit and
look for other jobs less often.
• Those with high resilience are more open and less cynical to change in
their organizations.
• Resilient individuals report feeling more hopeful and optimistic
about their jobs.
• Those with high resilience have higher levels of optimism about
their ability to succeed.
• Resilient employees report higher levels of psychological
wellbeing at work
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 35RESILIENCE BOOSTS FOCUS,
ENERGY, AND DEDICATION
MEQUILIBRIUM’S RESEARCH SHOWS DEFINITIVELY THAT RESILIENCE HAS A POWERFUL, POSITIVE
EFFECT ON EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY. RESILIENCE IMPROVEMENT INCREASES THE ABILITY TO FOCUS
AND REDUCE DISTRACTIONS. In addition to our own research, the peer-reviewed management literature
strongly supports the consistent and strong association between resilience and job performance.
• Self-reported productivity, manager-reported productivity, and objectively measured performance all
improve with resilience
• The resilience of supervisors seems to improve the performance of the workers they supervise
• Interventions that improve resilience produce measurable improvements in performance
• Resilience makes employees more confident when taking on challenging tasks
• Individuals with higher resiliency are more energized and are able to come up with multiple solutions
to problems than their low-resilience counterparts
• Resilient employees are more likely to engage in positive behavior such as mentoring newcomers
meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 36Finding RESILIENCE MAKE NO MISTAKE, BECOMING RESILIENT IS A SCIENCE. Success and resilience need each other, it’s that simple, and it’s something meQuilibrium knows a lot about. Responding to evolving market demands successfully doesn’t happen without a resilient workforce of people. Our resilience solutions help individuals rise above everything that life throws at them. Our workforce analytics reveal what’s impacting performance so leaders can make more informed decisions about their people and their business in ways that enable the organization to shift and meet these demands head on. The result of being more resilient not only changes the way organizations grow and how people perform, it lets us thrive at work and in life. Being resilient makes us better teammates, more present family members, and a stronger culture of humans. It’s that simple. meQuilibrium is changing the way organizations adapt for the now and prepare for the future. LET'S TALK meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 37
SOURCES Mercer, 2020 Global Talent Trend Study Bryan, Jordan. “Build Organizational Resilience for Today and Tomorrow” Gartner, October 2020 Josh Bersin. Business Resilience: The Global COVID Pandemic Response Study, 2020 Smith, Brad, Shatté, Andrew, Perlman, Adam, Siers, Michael, and Lynch, Wendy. “Improvements in Resilience, Stress, and Somatic Symptoms Following Online Resilience Training: A Dose-Response Effect” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Volume 60, Issue 1, January 2018, Pages 1-5 meQuilibrium, Resilience and Agility: The Dynamic Duo for the New World of Work, 2019 meQuilibrium, High Education and Income Do Not Guarantee a Resilient Employee, 2017 Shatté, Andrew, Perlman, Adam, Smith, Brad, and Lynch, Wendy. “The Positive Effect of Resilience on Stress and Business Outcomes in Difficult Work Environments” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Volume 59, Issue 2, February 2017, Pages 135-140 Kristensen, TS, Hannerz, H, Høgh, A and Borg, V. The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ). A tool for the assessment and improvement of the psychosocial work environment. Scand J Work Environ Health. Smith, Brad. The Impacts of COVID-19 on Workforce Resilience, meQuilibrium, 2020 Harter, Jim and Schmidt, Frank. “Causal Impact of Employee Work Perceptions on the Bottom Line of Organizations” Journal of Perspectives on Psychological Science, Volume 5, Issue 4, August 2010, Pages 378-389. meQuilibrium: The Resilience Imperative © 2021 New Life Solution Inc. 38
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